Chris Nardi: Come election time, Quebec needs to remember its other problems

Hopefully, despite all the hoopla that comes with provincial elections, Quebecers will remember that there are great voids in many of their beloved public services that need to be resolved, at the risk of losing them all.

Quebec student protests. Have you heard of them? Chances are, regardless of where you live, you’re familiar with the thousands of students striking against the planned tuition increases by the Charest government. Last week, I wrote a column on how strikers should take advantage of the heavily rumoured September elections in order to push their agenda: “If students really do believe in the cause that they clamor so loudly for in the streets, Quebecers can only hope that they show up when it really counts: at the polls.” Stop putting all your energy in increasingly ineffective demonstrations, and instead get all those people to vote against the Liberals in an organized way.

Then, on Tuesday, Davide Mastricci wrote a column titledHow Quebec’s student protesters won. In the column, he explained that “students, through their own efforts, made the tuition hike an election issue. What otherwise could have been a fringe discussion has arguably taken top spot on politician’s lists; above the corruption scandal, the failing infrastructure, and the provincial debt.” It’s improbable that Charest has the student strikes at the top of his “things I feel like talking about” list, but Mastricci is right: Parti Québécois leader Pauline Marois and Coalition Avenir Québec leader François Legault will try to centre the next elections around that issue.

And that’s a problem.

The upcoming election will be key in solving the social tension stemming from the student strike movement, but there is an abundance of other dire problems that need to be discussed. One such problem is the increasing corruption that has crept into all levels of government in the province, namely through construction contracts. A recent report drafted by the members of the Charbonneau commission – part of Quebec’s anti-collusion unit – painted a bleak picture of a construction industry plagued by corruption and a powerless Ministry of Transport. Duchesneau explained that two companies, Sintra – who has already been heavily sanctioned in France for being part of another construction cartel – and Construction DJL, have control over more than 60% of asphalt supplies. The corruption problem has become so blatant that, back in 2010, Macleans ran a feature titled Quebec: The most corrupt province in which they revealed that “it costs Quebec taxpayers roughly 30% more to build a stretch of road than anywhere else in the country.” So while students are clamoring for less money to be taken out of their pockets, they shouldn’t forget that the money that is taken from them needs to be used more effectively.

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Another key issue that requires immediate attention be broached is Quebec’s crippling debt. “I don’t think there is any place in the world panicking [in Canada] as much on the question of debt as Quebec,” said economist Louis Gill. The reason is simple: Quebec is Canada’s most indebted province, and by far. When the Liberals came to power in 2003, the province’s debt was $133-billion, or 53.5% of gross domestic product. As of March, that number increased to close to $184-billion, or 55.5% of GDP. In order to reduce the deficit, the government is hoping that Quebecers will agree to pay more taxes instead of accepting cuts in social services, though that’s hard to imagine in light of the student strikes. Though with the increasing cost of services, it is very difficult to imagine how Quebec can reduce its debt without either disproportionately increasing its level of taxation or cutting back one some of its social programs.

A third issue that needs to be broached is elderly healthcare treatments. In the 2012 budget, the Charest government announced investments of $900-million per year to provide extensive homecare services for the elderly, but that’s only starting in 2016. Thus, if the Charest government isn’t in power then, that program falls to dust. Furthermore, it doesn’t tend to the elderly who are already in publicly-funded residences and who have the worst living conditions of all. Back in March, reporter Pierre Pelchat came to the conclusion that Quebec is 15 years behind Ontario and the U.S. regarding the malnutrition of the elderly in residences, long-term care centres and even hospitals.

Furthermore, Quebec’s centres de soins hospitaliers de longue durée (CHSLD), or residential and long-term care centres, have suffered from increasingly decrepit buildings and equipment and decreasing staff, leading to worsening overall conditions for seniors who can’t afford expensive private residences. One potential solution would be for the government to offer partial subsidies to private residences, like it does to private elementary and secondary schools, thus allowing more elders to afford them and alleviating the burden on the public CHSLDs. In light of the aging population, it is key that Quebec takes care of its aging population, or what is now a big problem will soon become a staggering healthcare bill crisis.

The above list of issues isn’t exhaustive; Quebec also has a crumbling infrastructure, a public transit system that needs to be extended, and a whole other set of issues that need to be taken care of. Come election time, one can only hope that the issue of university funding will get the airtime that it requires and deserves. But in the grand political scheme of things, Quebecers cannot let it become the only issue at stake this fall. Hopefully, despite all the hoopla that comes with provincial elections, Quebecers will remember that there are great voids in many of their beloved public services that need to be resolved, at the risk of one day losing them all.